Nepali Royal Palace work force being slashed

The Nepali government has asked the Royal Palace secretariat to retire all its employees who have crossed 58 years of age, with immediate effect.

Minister of State for General Administration Ram Chandra Yadav Thursday said that the process to slash the number of Royal Palace Service staffers working at the Royal Palace through mandatory age based retirement was underway.

Yadav said that 51 employees who have crossed 58 years of age will be handed the pink slip while voluntary retirement will apply for employees with 30 years of service and that the rest will be appointed in public service bodies through the formulation of public service act.

Addressing a press conference here, Yadav said that the palace staff records had to be brought in from the Prime Minister's office after it was not found anywhere else as a result of the Royal Palace itself overseeing the Royal Palace Service Regulations prior to the formulation of the House of Representatives Regulations.

Yadav said that as soon as the records were found the decision of the council of ministers' meeting on March 15 to slash the palace work-force by 75 percent and reallocate the 25 percent to public service bodies would be implemented.

Source: Xinhua